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Donate to Our Cause

St. Martin’s provides excellent care and services to a wide variety of older adults because we have supporters like you!

Ministering to elders through a continuum of services and care that reflects love, respect and compassion and that enriches the quality and dignity of life for each individual is at the core of what we are. There are several opportunities for you to be involved in our mission:

Donating to make a difference in the lives of older adults

Volunteering time in one of our communities

Getting involved with one of the many worthwhile causes we support

Imagine you cannot care for your house, your children are gone, and you want to downsize. You move into St. Martin’s in the Pines and hope your savings will last for the rest of your life. You’re enjoying a wonderful, enriched life until one day you realize you’ve outlived your resources! Now what? Will you have to move and lose the friends you’ve made and leave the fulfilling life you are leading? That’s where St. Martin’s Friends Fund comes in. Your gift helps with one-time or recurring needs.

This is the kind of life-changing difference your generous contribution to St. Martin’s can make. St. Martin’s is a charitable organization. We carefully and responsibly manage donors’ contributions.

Your gift’s sole purpose is supporting St. Martin’s mission – providing a quality of life for aging individuals and their families. If you’d like to enrich the lives of elders today, click on one of the many options available to you – we appreciate your partnership.

Below is Additional Information on Specific Ways to Give:

We offer a variety of convenient giving options to accommodate your philanthropic interests and goals.

You may designate your gift or pledge to your area of interest or to St. Martin’s area of greatest need. Through the following giving options, you can create new opportunities for our residents, strengthen our wellness programs, enrich our staff and enhance our community.

Give Online

Through Network for Good. Just click the Donate Now button to give periodically or one time. Memorial and Honorarium giving is available.

Mail Your Gift

Direct Your Giving:

The Annual Fund serves the greatest current need of St. Martin’s, be it community and service enrichment and enhancement programs, resident and staff education programs or augmenting our charity care efforts.

The Employee Benevolence Fundprovides financial assistance to support employees who are experiencing a catastrophic financial emergency.

The Friends Fund supports residents who through no fault of their own cannot fully pay their cost of care. Assistance may be given for a one-time need or as a renewable subsidy. The Friends Fund was established over 60 years ago, and resources are generally used for grants for room and board and special equipment.

Pastoral Care Ministries offer opportunities for worship, communion, memorial services, and Bible study daily in all four of our facilities. Pastoral support and counseling is offered to elders, families, and staff.

Vital Wellness Programs are developed around an elder’s talents and passions to help them remain active, healthy and independent. Daily exercise, Music and Art therapy, Bell Choirs, and Sewing Circles are a few examples of these programs.

Advance Exceptional Associatesby providing tuition assistance for St. Martin’s team members to foster personal and professional growth.

There are many options to help enrich the life of each senior we serve! Those with an asterisk (*) qualify you for membership in our Legacy Society.

The Legacy Society exists to recognize and thank those who have included a gift in their will, trust or estate plan to enrich the life of each senior we serve. Those who inform us of their plans are recognized in perpetuity on a special plaque in The Arbors Apartments living area.

The most common way to become a member is to include a simple gift, for a percentage of your assets or a specific dollar amount, in your will or trust. Other simple and creative ways to join the Legacy Society are noted below. If you have already included a gift to St. Martin’s in your plans, please let us know so we can be sure your wishes are honored. Thank you!

GIFTS IN MEMORY OR HONOR:

A gift in memory or honor is a wonderful way to help older adults which also makes an immediate impact on a loved one. When a gift is made, a thank you is sent to the donor and notification is sent to the person honored or their family. Gifts made in memory of a resident will be recognized visibly in the honoree’s community. Additional personalized and continuing recognition will be given when gifts total $1,000.

YOUR WILL OR TRUST:

Including a gift in your will or trust to St. Martin’s is one of the most common and easy ways to help. The gift costs you nothing during your lifetime and eliminates any potential worry about running out of resources to care for yourself. Your bequest can be unrestricted or for a specific purpose. You may gift a specific dollar amount, a percentage, and/or the ‘residue’ of your estate. The legal name you can use for inclusion in your will, trust or estate plans is, “Episcopal Foundation of Jefferson County.”

SAMPLE LANGUAGE TO INCLUDE IN A WILL OR TRUST:
“I give, devise and bequeath to Episcopal Foundation of Jefferson Co. (TAX ID #63-0386404) doing business as St. Martin’s in the Pines, located at 4941 Montevallo Road, Birmingham, AL 35210, the sum of _______(dollar amount or %) to be used for its general support (or for a specific fund or program).”

Don’t feel like updating your will or trust? You can complete a simple codicil to add a gift to St. Martin’s.

LIFE INSURANCE AS GIFTS*:

Another quick and easy way to help seniors is to change the beneficiary of your Life Insurance to St. Martin’s. You can list us as a partial or sole beneficiary. If you have a life insurance policy you’re still making payments on, you can donate ownership of the policy to St. Martin’s. When premiums are due, you make a tax deductible charitable donation to St. Martin’s and then we make the payments. At your passing, the death benefit is used to help the seniors we serve.

ENDOWMENTS*:

With an endowment gift, the money given is invested and only the earnings it produces each year are used for the purpose you specify. A minimum gift of $15,000 is required to establish a named endowment fund. The new fund will create a lasting source of income and can be an excellent way to create a lasting legacy. Please contact the us for more information: 205.314.4102.

IRA BENEFICIARY LISTING*:

A very easy way to make a lasting impact on the lives of seniors is to change the beneficiary of your IRA to St. Martin’s. You can decide to list us as a partial or sole beneficiary.

TRANSFER/PAYABLE ON DEATH GIFTS*:

Another very easy way to have a lasting impact on the lives of the seniors we serve is to complete a “transfer on death” (TOD) or “payable on death” (POD) form for any of your bank or investment accounts. Simply ask your banker or broker for the TOD or POD form and list St. Martin’s in the Pines.

GIFTS OF REAL ESTATE:

You can donate real estate or property to help enrich the lives of the seniors we serve. This can be an effective way to make a gift without going through the trouble of selling a loved one’s home. We have a policy, available upon request, that we follow to determine if the gift will be accepted. Normally the donor will pay for a qualified appraisal of the property. Real estate can be donated outright or you can gift it using what’s called a retained life estate gift. With that option, you can gift the property now and continue to live in it (paying for all of the upkeep and maintenance) until you pass away. At your passing, St. Martin’s will dispose of the property and use the proceeds to benefit those we serve.

CHARITABLE REMAINDER TRUSTS*:

An estate planning attorney is used to create the documents required to establish a charitable remainder trust. Appreciated assets, normally valued at $100,000 or more, are transferred to the trust. The trust can then sell and diversify the holdings without capital gains taxes. The trust pays you income for the rest of your life. At your passing, the trust document would state that the “remainder” amount would go as a gift to St. Martin’s in the Pines. There are several types of charitable remainder trusts; charitable remainder annuity trusts and charitable remainder unitrusts. Your estate planning attorney can help you determine which would be best for your situation.

ENTRANCE FEE REFUND DONATION:

A convenient way to help is a donation made from a refunded entrance fee. In most cases St. Martin’s residents with life care contracts are refunded a percentage of their entrance fee upon leaving the community. An agreement can be signed in advance donating all or part of that to St. Martin’s.

GIFTS OF APPRECIATED ASSETS:

A significant way to support the mission of St. Martin’s is through a gift of appreciated securities such as stock, bonds and mutual funds. By donating common stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other appreciated securities, donors may also receive tax benefits that include avoiding long-term capital gains tax and obtaining deductions for their annual income tax filing. Avoid selling the stocks first and then donating them. By transferring them directly to us you avoid paying capital gains taxes which can make this more beneficial than donating cash. Please notify us of the donation so you can be properly acknowledged as direct electronic transfers do not list donor information. Please contact our Development Department at 205.314.4102, or contact us by email to begin the process.

GIFTS IN KIND:

Gifts-in-kind involve both tangible and intangible personal property. Tangible assets might include single or collective works of art, books, or other collectibles; vehicles; and equipment. Intangible assets might include patents; copyrights of cultural, artistic, and literary works; and computer software under development. Gifts-in-kind may be retained or sold (with the proceeds of the sale distributed to St. Martin’s purpose as designated by the donor) or retained by St. Martin’s to use in a manner benefiting its mission. If the item is sold we may provide you with the written notice of the sales price. The IRS does not allow charities to place a value on the donation of gifts-in-kind. We create a recod of the donation and provide you a written acknowledgement you can forward to your tax advisor to determine the value of the gift.

Volunteers lead by example, committing themselves to a cause with unbridled enthusiasm, loyalty and skill. Our volunteers help us fulfill our mission and are absolutely vital to our success. We strive to offer rich, rewarding experiences to each of these talented community leaders. By donating your time, you are giving something back to your community and joining us in enhancing the lives of our elders. Experience a sense of fulfillment and purpose, while reaching out and serving others in need. There are many opportunities available at St. Martin’s, and we would welcome your partnership. Please complete the application below to join our team.

Contact the Volunteer Department

For more information, contact Volunteer Services at 205.314.4200 or by email.